Chatham County DA Meg Heap ready to go with major cases

Chatham County District Attorney Meg Daly Heap is shown in her office at the Chatham County Courthouse.

Photos by Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News

Chatham County District Attorney Meg Daly Heap, second from right, talks with prosecutors from the major crimes division.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News

Chatham County District Attorney Meg Daly Heap, right, talks with Assistant DA Jennifer Parker Guyer and prosecutors from the major crimes division.

McConnell

Pauley

Walmsley

Karpf

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News

Chatham County District Attorney Meg Daly Heap is shown in her office at the Chatham County Courthouse.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News

Chatham County District Attorney Meg Daly Heap, right, talks with Assistant District Attorneys Jenny Guyer, Jerry Rothschild and other prosecutors from the major crimes division.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News

Chatham County District Attorney Meg Daly Heap talks in her office at the Chatham County Courthouse.

Meg Daly Heap took office as Chatham County district attorney this month facing more than the usual staff decisions confronting a new boss.

She and her chief assistant, Greg McConnell, had about a month to prepare a group of eight prosecutors to attack major crimes prosecutions under the most significant scheduling change in Chatham County Superior Court in decades.

But Heap said she will be “up and running” when Chatham County Superior Court judges Michael Karpf and Timothy R. Walmsley kick off their major crimes division Feb. 4.

She has assigned four assistants to each judge. And she has filled all but one vacancy on her staff of 35 assistants.

“They have to be up and ready to go,” Heap said. “That’s what they’re working to do.”

She refers to the major crimes group as “the gunners — the hardcore prosecutors who take on the bad guys.”

They are among her most experienced assistants who will be required to try a case, frequently before juries, then almost immediately prepare to start another trial within days.

The major crimes division will tackle the county’s worst crimes.

Those include murder, armed robbery, rape, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sexual battery and treason, with a number of major drug trafficking cases thrown in.

Karpf, the court’s chief judge, said the court will place prosecutors and defense lawyers in court almost constantly, at least during the initial stages.

The court is perhaps the single greatest change in the local Superior Court system since 1985 when judges Frank S. Cheatham Jr. and Perry Brannen Jr. took over scheduling of criminal cases from the district attorney’s office, installing a fast-track case management system that reduced disposition times.

Walmsley, who joined the court early last year, said planning for the change has been under way for some time and that he and Karpf “are looking forward to it.”

“From our perspective (Heap) came into office with a plan in place. She’s hit the ground running, which is nice to see, from the court’s perspective.”

He and Karpf both have court scheduled to begin Feb. 4.

The court’s new schedule will assure the public that the process will help move cases along and that the court is addressing cases in a fair and unbiased manner, Walmsley said.

Heap’s challenge

For Heap, it involved arriving for her new role only to find dockets already set and office files in a state of disarray. Some prosecutors had been assigned to the new posts by her predecessor, but they weren’t always her choices.

“Nobody knew where the files were,” she said, describing assistant prosecutors running from “office to office trying to find files.”

Those problems have been put to rest, she said, and it is up to her new team to make it work.

She and McConnell began interviewing 57 candidates for job openings in December.

The emphasis, she said, was on trial experience: “Where they had been and what they’d been doing.”

Once selected, the task became putting them into key roles.

She took office determined to “find people who had a passion for working with crime victims. … I want people who’ve got the same passion I do.”

She brought back McConnell, a career prosecutor who left the office after 26 years in 2010 for a prosecutor’s job in the neighboring Atlantic Judicial Circuit.

He is her chief assistant and as such will oversee the day-to-day operation of major case prosecutions.

Isabel Pauley, another seasoned prosecutor who fled the local office in 2010 for the Atlantic circuit, is scheduled to return in April.

Heap also has reassigned a number of veteran prosecutors within her office, including Frank Pennington II, Christy Barker, Ann Elmore, Jerry Rothschild, Jennifer “Jenny” Parker Guyer and Michael Dennard.

A new hire, David Rhoden, was brought in to complete the teams.

The new teams

District Attorney Meg Heap has assigned four prosecutors each to Superior Court judge Michael Karpf and Timothy R. Walmsley in the major crimes division. They are:

Prosecutors assigned to Karpf

Name: Frank Pennington II

Age: 35

Hometown: Savannah

Education: Bachelor of arts in political science, Berry College (1999); Georgia State University College of Law (2004)

Professional experience: Chatham County assistant district attorney (2003, 2004-2013); internships at Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney, DeKalb County Solicitor’s Office in Decatur and Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia in Atlanta

Achievements: Rape Crisis Center of Savannah Award for his work on behalf of rape and sex crime victims (2011)

Name: Jerry Rothschild

Age: 44

Hometown: Columbus

Education: Bachelor of arts in history and English, University of Georgia (1992); University of Georgia School of Law (1995)

Professional experience: Chatham County assistant district attorney (1995, 1997-2013); private practice with attorney William O. Cox in Savannah; (1994-1995); clerkships at Athens-Clarke County Legal Aid in Athens and law offices of Robert L. Wadkins, Columbus, Layfield, Rothschild & Morgan in Columbus

Achievements: Assistant district attorney work with Chatham-Savannah Counter-Narcotics Team led to the largest cocaine bust in Chatham County history

Name: Michael Dennard

Age: 53

Hometown: Lyons

Education: Bachelor of arts in political science, Morris Brown College (1981); University of Georgia School of Law (1984)

Professional experience: Chatham County assistant district attorney (1993-94, 2004-12, 2011-13); assistant U.S. attorney, Middle District of Georgia in Macon (1994-2004); private practice in Vidalia (1990-93), attorney with Harris Odell Jr. in Savannah, (1989-1990) and DeKalb County Attorney’s Office, (1986-1989); assistant Chatham County attorney

Achievements: Editorial and Managing Board of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, BALSA member

Name: Isabel Pauley (beginning April 1)

Age: 45

Hometown: Fort Monmouth, N.J.

Education: Bachelor of arts in rhetoric and communications with a minor in government, University of Virginia (1989); College of William & Mary’s School of Law (1992)

Achievements: Krucho & Fries Award for Academic Achievement in Labor Law and Employment Relations; handled tobacco litigation as part of the global settlement against tobacco companies; member of Family Violence Council and Georgia Domestic Violence Fatality Review; conducted extensive domestic violence training with Savannah-Chatham police; military prosecutor corps.

Prosecutors assigned to Walmsley

Name: Jennifer Parker Guyer

Age: 39

Hometown: Cordele

Education: Bachelor or arts in journalism, University of Georgia (1996); University of Georgia School of Law (1999)

Achievements: Chairperson, Savannah-Chatham Family Violence Council; past president, Savannah Jaycees; recognized by SAFE Shelter for work on behalf of victims of domestic violence; served as a coach and regional coordinator for the Georgia Mock Trial Program; served as trial advocacy faculty for the National College of District Attorneys; provided training on domestic violence and sexual assault for local law enforcement

Name: Ann Elmore

Age: 55

Hometown: Milwaukee

Education: Bachelor of arts in journalism, University of Georgia (1979); Mercer University School of Law (1985)

Achievements: Assistant District Attorney of the Year, District Attorney’s Association of Georgia (2001); served on the Sex Assault Nurse Examiner Task Force; served on two Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council Management Study Committees; trainer for the National District Attorneys’ Association

Name: Christy Barker

Age: 46

Hometown: Chicago

Education: Bachelor of arts in American studies, University of Notre Dame (1988); University of Georgia School of Law (1992)

Professional experience: Chatham County assistant district attorney (1992-2013); clerkships/internships, Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta, Gwinnett County District Attorney in Lawrenceville and U.S. Attorney in Atlanta (1991-92)

Education: Bachelor or arts in English with minor in education, The University of the South (2009); Mercer University School of Law (2012)

Professional experience: Chatham County assistant district attorney (2012-13); internships, Chatham County State and Superior Courts

Achievements: The Order of the Barristers National Honor Society, Chair of the Mercer Advocacy Council, International Academy of Trial Lawyers Student Advocacy Award recipient

NEW ASSISTANTS

District Attorney Meg Heap has hired eight new assistants. In addition, David Rhoden and Isabel Pauley were hired and assigned to the major crimes division. The new assistants, and their assignments, are:

Name: Allison E. Bailey

Assignment: Chatham County Juvenile Court

Age: 40

Hometown: Americus

Education: Bachelor of arts in journalism, University of New Mexico (1994); University of New Mexico School of Law (1997)

Professional experience: Private practice in Savannah (2012); Chatham County assistant district attorney, (2000-10); assistant district attorney in Waycross (1999-2000); Public Defenders office in Waycross (1998-1999)

Professional experience: Clayton County Office of the Solicitor General, senior assistant solicitor general, Jonesboro (2009-12); internships, Clayton County District Attorney in Jonesboro, volunteer, Atlanta Legal Aid Society in Atlanta, Legal Aid of Suffolk County in Central Islip, N.Y., New York Civil Liberties Union in Melville, N.Y., Fulton County District Attorney in Atlanta (Crimes Against Women & Children Division) (2005-09)

Name: Mitchell C. Mobley

Assignment: State Court

Age: 37

Hometown: Atlanta

Education: Bachelor of arts in health science, Georgia Southern University, (1997); Mercer University School of Law (2008)

Professional experience: Assistant solicitor general, Fulton County Solicitor General in Atlanta (2010-12); apprentice, District Attorney, Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney in DeKalb County (2009-10)

Name: Andre Pretorius

Assignment: Chief assistant, State Court

Age: 34

Hometown: Johannesburg, South Africa

Education: Bachelor of arts in political science (pre-law), Georgia State University, (2002); John Marshall Law School, Atlanta (2008)

Education: Bachelor of science in biology, University of Georgia (2005); Mississippi College School of Law, Jackson, Miss. (2011)

Professional experience: Attorney, The McGarity Group in Buford (2012); staff attorney for Judge Warren Davis in Lawrenceville (2012); criminal investigator, Gwinnett County District Attorney’s office in Lawrenceville (2010-11); internships at Hinds County Youth Court in Jackson, Miss., and Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office (2006-08)

Name: Lauren Purvis

Assignment: Superior Court

Age: 29

Hometown: Augusta

Education: Bachelor of arts in journalism/English, minor in philosophy, University of Georgia (2006); Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta (2009)